This is the pilot for an idea that just wouldn't leave me alone until it was shared with all of you. Tell what you like, don't like, and if you want to see more. Stay safe. Stay fun.

Justus3138

Here's the sad truth, all men are not created equal. I learned that at the young age of four. I also learned that children are sociopaths and that I was not exempt from it.

I was declared quirkless. That was the start of the first lesson. The start of the second came when my classmates found out. The nice ones felt sorry for me, the others wouldn't stop reminding me. There was no escape from the reminders that I was weaker than the rest, but what stung the most was my best friend becoming my worst bully.

Katsuki Bakugou.

We had such fun together before his quirk came in. After that his ego grew to legendary proportions. How do I know it was legendary? I'm talking about it.

After such a betrayal I probably would have become a nervous reck if it wasn't for that fateful day.

Bakugou was trying to hurt another kid for something ridiculous, to this day I can't remember exactly what it was, the events after are more important.

I was so scared, but I still managed to stammer out 'I'll stop you myself.' Bakugou chuckled and monologued like the villains he wants to fight but that's still not the important part. The important part is what happened after the first explosion powered hit landed.

To this day those events are hazy, so I had to get second-hand accounts to tell you this bit.

Bakugou's explosion went off in my face. The surprise was that my face was blown off.

And underneath was revealed to be a gun metal skull. Not a typical one mind you. This skull looked like something a sci-fi fan drew while tripping, spaces missing to make the overall structure lighter but still just as strong. Lips still intact but with the same gun metal color that the not bone had.

My eyes though were the scariest. Grey sclera with a white iris and pupil. The eyes of a corpse, a mechanical corpse.

I don't remember how it happened but the next thing I could remember was Bakugou and his cronies crying and seeing the structure of my hands repair themselves. Like grains of metal sand blowing in the wind but moving towards the damaged areas in an organized mechanical manner. Covering them and then turning into normal skin.

A teacher found us. Dragged everyone to the office. After the shock wore off one thought was on repeat.

I have a quirk.

I was overjoyed.

Then I looked at my three assailants. A new aspect of my quirk made itself known. I didn't just see the scuffs and bruises. I saw the veins, the muscle and the bones.

The broken bones.

I knew in some corner of my mind that I did this and that joy I felt turned sour. Before I knew it, I was in front of Bakugou.

'Are you okay? I'm sorry I did this; I don't know how I did this.'

Bakugou just looked at me in shock while I rambled on. Then he did something that took me by surprise.

He smiled.

"So Deku stands up for himself and gets a quirk from it. Had I known it would be that easy I would have blown your face off sooner." He said, still smiling.

"But don't think this means your better than me, I'm still going to be the best!" he shouted with his soon to be signature scowl.

After that he surprised me again by lying to the adults and saying we were just wrestling when my quirk showed up. The teachers looked skeptical, but no one said anything different.

Once the meeting was over, the two troublemakers and friend? Where taken to the hospital and me and mom went to a quirk specialist. A different one.

That trip was very informative.

My quirk was a mutation type. Every single cell in my body was smaller than normal and composed of what the doctor dubbed, machine phase matter. There was no known equivalent in the science community.

While most people's cells are specialized, like bone cells vs skin or liver cells. Mine were all the same multipurpose cell, with prompting I was able to do some minor shapeshifting. When I turned my forearms into giant blades my mom nearly had a heart attack. I could change my face but only little things at that time, like shortening my hair or changing its color. When at rest my cells mimic the appearance of normal ones.

With mom's reluctant permission we found out I could bleed but the blood would turn grey and flow back in that weird motion. From that we learned that my cells hold themselves together with an electromagnetic field. My medical record gained a note to keep me away from MRIs after that.

X-rays didn't show anything but regular bones leading to the conclusion that all my other internals were still the same unless I decided otherwise. On a whim the doctor asked if I could make my body flow like water or sand.

I tried moving some of myself from one hand to the other, like tossing a ball. It worked and I got another glimpse at what my hand looked underneath. While everything looked (as I would later come to learn) like it would in a medical poster, segments would go missing to generate the floating mass, these open segments I would learn after much studying, were like the open spaces in an I beam used for construction.

When I mentioned my eyes, we had to do another slew of tests not that I was complaining, I wanted to see what I could do. Turns out I could see in every light spectrum and possibly a few other ways as well.

After all the tests the doctor concluded that the reason, I still had an extra joint in my toe (we checked it was still there) was because my body was mimicking the original human body before quirks and that I might one day be able to mimic other people down to the smallest detail.

On the drive home my mom started to cry, I asked her what was wrong, and she looked surprised.

"Guess we have to add super hearing." She said.

I wasn't deterred though and asked again what was wrong.

"Nothing is wrong sweetie, I'm just so happy for you."

"Do you think I could be a hero mom?" I asked, repeating that question I asked while crying and watching All Might save people on the computer. She froze but relaxed and whispered.

"Yes, I think you can become a hero."

As the years went by, I practiced with my quirk and learned many things about it.

Number one, my limits were my imagination.

The energy needed to shift my mass around was almost negligible. I never really seemed to get tired, like my body had some other energy source or just used the energy from food more efficiently neither I nor the doctors could figure that out.

Number two, exercise was almost pointless.

Exercise didn't affect my muscles the way it did other people. They didn't tear and build back up stronger. My muscles would always have a mechanically hard limit, but I could shift the structure of said muscles to increase that mechanical limit, after lots of studying mechanical engineering. Super strength was added to the list of my abilities.

Number three, I will always win costume contests.

I use my phase matter to form clothes and change them to anything I had seen before and make slight adjustments without the need of seeing an original. It was hard getting mom to agree but once I pointed out the savings on clothes she relented.

Number four, I am banned from karaoke competitions.

I could not only mimic people after just looking at them, but I could mimic their voice after hearing only a sentence. I laughed so hard when mom came home to find her favorite soap opera character sitting on her couch and just stood there trying to form a sentence. After a slap upside the head and a promise to never buy liquor before it was legal, she congratulated me.

Number five, if it's got a hole in it, I can get through it.

I can lower the strength of the magnetic field that holds me together to turn myself into a cloud of metal sand with weight. Or I could leave a bit of myself behind to push off of for a boost in speed. The effect was like a speed mirage. This increased my mobility in close quarters.

Number six, I can walk on metal walls.

With my magnetic field I could magnetize myself to stick to anything with metal in it.

Number seven, Kachan has the emotional range of a teaspoon and the emotional volatility of a teenage girl.

I don't know how it happened, but our friendship seemed to mend itself a few years after I got my quirk. Maybe it was when we started sparring against each other. Maybe it was because I wouldn't let him get away with anything. Maybe it was because right now we were tied in our tally of spars. Maybe it was because whenever I got truly angry, I would go into what he called my 'killer robot mode' complete with machine corpse eyes. Haven't blacked out since that first time so I chalked it up to just being because of my quirk coming in.

Whenever I would call us friends, he would vehemently deny it saying I was the only decent punching bag around. Eventually I got comfortable enough to tease him. Like when I found out that he deliberately makes a troll face because people have said one too many times he looks like his mom. That was a good day.

Today started off with a bang. I got a front row seat to Mt. Lady's debut and made several notes on her quirk. One of my hobbies was picking apart new quirks.

Whenever Kachan sees me muttering and writing notes in my quirk notebook he says I'm going to eventually take over the worlds WMDs and start Armageddon. I don't know where he gets his material, but his jokes are lame. Though I do wonder why he shakes his head after I point it out.

Classes were normal, other than the teacher saying we should start thinking about our futures and Kachan insulting the entire class but even then, that's not something completely out of the ordinary.

"Hey Deku, don't forget about tomorrow's spar alright." Kachan drawled.

"I haven't forgotten a single one Kachan so does that mean you talk to me after school because you need your dose of this wonderful speciemen? I told you I can't return your feelings." I said, trying not to burst out laughing at my own joke.

"Like I would ever try and woo you. But hey I forgot to ask, why do you keep using that wimpy look when you could buff yourself up with just a thought?" he asked, showing his insight that most wouldn't think he had.

In our last spar I had just perfected changing into other people in under a second. It was a big surprise to Kachan when he thought he was going to hit his mother.

"Unlike you Kachan, I don't have a compulsive need to show off, I told you, a micro penis is nothing to be ashamed of." I must have used that one too much if the lack of reaction was any indicator.

"The reason I don't turn myself into a slab of meat is to keep the vultures off of me." I responded.

Truth is, there was a lot of reasons for keeping this skinner form, it was good practice to see how small of a person I could mimic, and no one pays attention to a frail looking kid just to name a few. I haven't told my friend yet, but I did spend a day with a different face and a stronger build. The number of harlots trying to get my attention was too much. Most guys would jump at the chance to have girls hanging off their arms, but it was more exhausting then it was fun. So, I haven't done it again since.

After we parted ways, I made my way home. When I walked underneath an overpass is when things got exciting.

I heard some squelching noise behind me. When I turned around to look, there he was. The ugliest villain I had ever seen and that's coming from someone who will go out of his way to see a fight between heroes and villains.

I could have gotten out of the way but I have never had the chance to test my quirk against living fluid before, if I still needed to breath then I would have been more cautious but this was too good an opportunity to pass up. Once he got me, he tried to shove himself down my throat. The pervert. I quickly sealed off my throat with a shift of my phase matter, and every other orifice for good measure.

"Hey, why can't I take over your body?" the sludge finally spoke.

I though had had enough experimentation for one day. Every cement structure has metal rebar in it and this walkway was no different. I magnetized my feet to it, dragging me down to the ground and was about to keep walking when the hero the villain was muttering about showed up.

Now I can see why he was running.

If I had All Might on my ass I would be running too or asking for an autograph on my way to the slammer. It was a coin toss.

"Have no fear your safe, now that I am here that is." All Might declared.

If I was truly in danger, I probably would have been relieved to hear those words. As it was my fanboy heart was a flutter. Well it would be if it wasn't a solid mass of machine particals.

After a few swipes from the villain All Might yelled out Texas smash and while I couldn't feel it, I could tell from the vibration of the concrete under my feet that he just generated hurricane level winds from one punch. It apparently was enough to splatter the villain because I was now able to see in the normal light spectrum again. Good thing I was stuck to the ground otherwise I would have went flying.

"Wow, I thought you would be out like a light with that Villain smothering you, your pretty tough!" All Might shouted in his picture-perfect baritone.

"Sorry bout that back there, I didn't mean to get you caught up in my justicing. Usually I pay more attention to keeping bystanders safe. But it turns out this city's sewer system is pretty difficult to navigate." He continued, followed by his signature laugh.

"Anyway! You were a big help. Thank you! I've captured the evil-doer!" he said with two soda bottles filled with villain. Either he was so fast I couldn't see it, or I was too distracted to catch him do it.

I know its corny, but I was eating it up. He is so much cooler in person.

"Could you please sign my notebook?" I asked with absolutely no crack in my voice at all and if someone says otherwise, they won't find the body.

"Certainly!" he replied and walked up to me while I held out my notebook.

That's when I saw it. Through clothes and skin, I saw the wound on his left side.

"Welp. I've gotta get this guy to the police so they can take care of him, stay out of trouble, see you around!"

"Your leaving already?" I blurted out.

"Pro heroes are constantly fighting time as well as enemies." He replied while stretching.

Something about that time comment bugged me.

"Now stand back, I'm taking off."

Just as his legs were fully extended but before he left the ground, I made a split-second decision and grabbed on to him.

He got out a 'thanks for your continued support' before he realized I was on his leg.

"Hey, hey, hey, what do you think you're doing? Let go! I love my fans, but this is too much!"

Clearly this was a reflexive response.

"And what happens if I let go this high up?" I asked, I would survive but he didn't need to know that.

"Oh. That's a good point, just keep your eyes and mouth shut."

Unneeded but I appreciated the sentiment. That's when I heard him cough and whisper shit.

"Not a very smart move, bang on the door for a while, someone will let you in."

"Considering the hole in your side, are you really someone who should be talking about smart moves?" I asked.

He froze on his march to the ledge.

"My quirk affects my eyes, when you signed my notebook, I saw all the internal damage and I wanted to ask you. How do you do it? How do you continue to smile, to be the number one hero despite how much pain you must be in?" I asked.

Before he could answer he started to steam like a smoke bomb while groaning. The results were more surprising then the wound I was talking about.

Gone was the titan covered in muscle and in its place stood a bag of skin and bones.

"I have so many questions now."

"So, do I kid, but to answer your immediate question, you know how guys at the pool are sucking in their gut and flexing, I'm like that." He said, not that it actually explained how his muscles changed their mass like that. I would know, that's a hard limit of my quirk.

"I'm counting on you to keep your mouth shut. Don't go talking about this online or telling your friends."

"If I was going to do that, I wouldn't have told you or grabbed your leg." I shot back at the cripple. What? Kachan rubbed off on me.

"Fair enough, it happened five years ago when I got into a big fight. Do you how bad the damage is?" he asked.

I focused more on his side and started listing off what I could see.

"Your respiratory system is in shambles, your stomach is just gone and judging by the internal scar tissue you have had multiple surgeries that have exasperated the damage already there. What is left looks like it was stitched back together by Dr. Frankenstein, I don't think Toxic Chainsaw could have done this." I finished.

"Wow, you really know your stuff and yes that punk may have landed some hits, but he couldn't bring me down. Not that it matters, I can only do hero work for about three hours a day now. Rest of the time, this is what I look like."

I knew that All Might was less active in recent years, but I didn't think it was only three hours a day. I thought he was tough before, but this takes it to a whole new level.

"You asked me, how I do it? The answer is fear. I am afraid of what the world will look like after I hang up my cape. Crime rates dropped when the mere mention of my name brought hope to people and fear to criminals. The symbol of peace, doesn't do the burden justice, I keep going because I am afraid, and I smile to hide that fear." He declared.

Most people would have retired right after getting hurt so bad, but he has kept on outshining everyone else with one lung and no stomach for years. His title is well earned. If only it didn't come at such a high cost.

"This job is tough. Heroes are always having to risk their lives, so we don't like it when civilians make that job harder by jumping in thinking we will save them." He lectured.

Not going to lie, that stung a bit more then I would like.

He left after that, I was going to follow until I heard and explosion in the distance. I left to see what was happening, but I was going a little slower, digesting what All Might said on my way there.

It was the sludge villain that tried to hurt me from before. He must have fell out of All Might's pockets when I grabbed on to him. the guilt twisted my gut. Why though were the heroes just standing there? Don't hero schools teach them how to adapt to situations that don't favor their quirk? That was my last rational thought before what I saw next.

Kachan was in that's villains grip.

Why am I running? I couldn't remember starting but with my friend in danger it didn't matter. I could hear the supposed heroes yelling at me but it didn't matter.

I let my body decompress itself to what it was supposed to be, gaining almost a foot in height and about twenty pounds of visible muscle. My speed increased with the length of my legs. My backpack was behind the safety line, so I grabbed a piece of building the size of a baseball and threw it at the villain's eye.

Threw isn't accurate. I launched it just a few ft per second shy of the slowest bullet. The sludge villain's eye was a mess, blood and pieces of said eye were gushing out, and Kachan was almost entirely out of him.

I used my speed boost to cover the rest of the distance. Without a second to think about it I grabbed my friend by the back of his collar and threw him towards the heroes, because I wasn't going to be able to stop or dodge the villain's payback for the eye.

He didn't show that he was capable of making stabbing implements before but the lance of sludge going through my back and out my chest said differently. He must have been really pissed cause he started to ragdoll me into every hard surface he could find. Good thing I was made of metal or else I would be a bag of pulp by now.

He held me up in front of the frozen heroes like a trophy, it was then that I decided to stop playing possum.

I, again, stuck myself to the metal rebar under the cement, twisted around to face the sludge villain, and cut the tendril stuck in my back off with a newly formed blade from my left arm. He and the heroes were so shocked nobody knew where All Might came from.

"I really am pathetic. I told you to stay out of the way of the heroes. But I see now I wasn't living up to my own ideals. Pros are always risking their lives. That's the true test of a hero!"

He loves his speeches not that I was complaining.

"Detroit Smash!" was all the warning I got before even stronger winds then last time hit me like a sledgehammer.

This time I couldn't stay put and got pushed down and back to where I threw Kachan.

Once the wind died down it started to rain. I was in awe at how much force it would have taken to change the weather.

People started to cheer but it was quickly stopped when someone shouted.

"Is that kid who got stabbed alive!"

The crowd started to murmur in panic.

Me and Kachan stood up almost at the exact same time. Giving everyone a perfect view of the hole in my chest.

There was no blood just gun metal grey phase matter filling in the grievous injury. The damage from getting thrown around was already taken care of. Even All Might was slack jawed.

"Hey Kachan, can you see my heart?" I asked in fake concern.

"Shut up tin can, you know you don't have one!" was his reply.

Our banter got the crowd out of their funk and the cheering recommenced, louder if possible. The villain was gathered up and taken into police custody where he belongs, and the heroes tried to chew me out.

"Can it, windbag!" I snapped at Death Arms.

"Unless the police have charges, they can lay against me that don't drag your useless names through the mud, you can shut up about how a student did the pros job for them, while they waited for 'someone with the right quirk', to show up."

I took their stunned silence as my que to leave, shrinking down to my school size as I walked. Kachan though was in hysterics, he was laughing so hard from my speech. Asshole.

I was in the residential area when today's last surprise decided to show up.

"I am here!" my favorite hero shouted while making a dramatic entrance. His over the top performance was getting old.

Oh, who am I kidding, its never going to get old for me.

"How did you get rid of those reporters?" I asked.

"Ha! Ha! I stand for justice! Not soundbites! Because I! I am All Mi" and that's when he deflated and spewed a rather alarming amount of blood.

I admit I screamed a little.

Once he was done hacking up his other lung he spoke.

"Young man, I came here to thank you."

"Huh?" was my intelligent reply.

"If you hadn't run into that fight, I would have been a worthless bystander, watching from the crowd. So, thanks."

"Oh, no. It was my fault he was there to begin with." I apologized.

What I really felt bad about was wasting his limited hero time.

"There are stories about every hero. How they became great." He started.

"Most have one thing in common. Their bodies moved before they had a chance to think. Almost on their own." He continued.

"And today, that's what happened to you."

Hearing this from my idol was filling me with something I couldn't describe. If I could, I would be crying right now.

"Young man, you can become a hero."

That did it, I was on my knees head face down filled to the brim with emotion.

"I deem you worthy of my power. My quirk is yours to inherit."

Over the top bag of bones say what?!